This application relates generally to the field of capacity planning. More specifically, the disclosure provided herein relates to providing a tool for aiding capacity planners.
Capacity planning generally refers to a predictive process for determining the amount of future computing hardware resources required to support estimated changes in workload. Some changes may increase the workload of the computing hardware resources such that a current system is over-utilized. Other changes may decrease the workload of the computing hardware resources such that a current system is under-utilized. A capacity planner may refer to a person who performs the capacity planning function and makes decisions related to whether changes to existing computing hardware resources are needed.
Conventional capacity planning is typically performed by manually monitoring a group of computer systems. Such an approach may be suitable when an adequate number of capacity planners are available and when the quantity of systems to be monitored is sufficiently small. However, when the number of available capacity planners is low and when the quantity of computer systems to be monitored greatly exceeds the number of available capacity planners, manually monitoring the computer systems may become impractical and inefficient.